11/10/08

Edward Turner (January 24, 1901 – August 15, 1973) was a famous British motorcycle designer. He was born in London, on the day King Edward VII was proclaimed King.In 1915 Edward Turner had his first ride on a motorcycle, a Light Tourist New Imperial.

The Turner Special

On April 16 1925 "The Motor Cycle" published drawings by Edward Turner of an OHC single he had designed, using a series of vertically stacked gears to drive the overhead camshaft. A subsequent redesign used bevel gears to drive a vertical camshaft, operating the valves through rockers. The only shared aspects of the two designs were the bore and stroke, 74 x 81 mm, with the barrel being sunk into the crankcases. The head could be removed from either design complete with undisturbed valve gear.

Edward Turner built his first bike in 1927, using his second design, a 350 cc OHC single. The Motor Cycle published a photograph of Edward Turner's patented engine, mounted in his motorcycle called the Turner Special. The Special was registered for road use with the London County Council as YP 9286. It used Webb forks, and a three-speed Sturmey-Archer gearbox.

Ariel Designer

Edward Turner conceived the Square Four engine in 1928. At this time he was looking for work, showing drawings of his engine design to motorcycle manufacturers. The engine was essentially a pair of 'across frame' OHC parallel twins joined by their geared central flywheels, with a one-piece four-cylinder block (or Monobloc) and single head. The idea for the engine was rejected by BSA, but adopted by Ariel. Thus it became the Ariel Square Four, and not the BSA Square Four. Edward Turner was then invited by Jack Sangster to join Ariel.

By 1929, at Ariel, Jack Sangster had Edward Turner and Bert Hopwood working under Val Page in design. Edward Turner, now 28, married Edith Webley.

The Ariel Square Four

The first Ariel Square Four 4F was shown at the Olympia Motorcycle Show in 1930 in chain-driven overhead camshaft 500 cc form.

Ariel released the 600 cc Square Four in 1931.

The 40-year old Val Page, formerly a designer for JAP, and more lately Ariel (where he was Edward Turner's boss), gave up on Ariel in 1932, and joined Triumph. (Ariel had closed in 1930 but was reconstituted in 1931–32).

In 1936 Triumph decided to create separate motorcycle and car companies, and sell the motorcycle company. Ariel owner, Jack Sangster, bought it and changed the name to Triumph Engineering Company. The Ariel Square Four changed from the 4F 600 cc OHC version to the 4G OHV 995 cc version that year.

Triumph General Manager and Chief Designer

Sangster made Edward Turner, now 35, General Manager and Chief Designer. (In this new position Turner received a 5% commission on the companies net profits, and became a shareholder with 4.9% of the equity). The first thing he did was clear space on the production floor for an office and an adjoining drawing office. Val Page had left Triumph four months before and joined BSA. Bert Hopwood came to Triumph as Turner's Design Assistant. Ted Crabtree, who was also at Ariel before, became Chief Buyer, and Freddie Clarke was made Chief Development Engineer: both were motorcycle racers.

In July 1937 Turner introduced the 500 cc Speed Twin, selling at £75. It was smaller and weighed five pounds less than the £70 Tiger 90, and proved very successful. The 5T Speed Twin (some say based on the engine design of Turner's Riley Nine car) became the standard by which other twins were judged, and its descendants continued in production until the 1980s. The original 27 bhp parallel-twin was capable of exceeding 90 mph (145 km/h) and weighed 361 lb (166 kg).

Edward Turner's wife Edith died in a car crash near Coventry in 1939.

Turner's "sprung hub" was supposed to go into production in 1941, adding 17 lb to the weight of a bike. But the war delayed its introduction until 1948.

In 1942 Turner designed a generator, using an all-alloy Triumph vertical twin engine, for the Air Ministry. After a heated disagreement with Jack Sangster, Turner quit his position at Triumph and promptly became chief designer at BSA, where he worked on a side-valve vertical twin for the War. Bert Hopwood was made Triumph's new designer and Sangster put him to work on a 500 cc side-valve twin competing for the same contract.

By 1943 Bert Hopwood completed the design, but it was never produced. Triumph's prototypes were released in February, before BSA's planned launch. The design later became the post-war TRW model. In late October, Edward Turner went back to Triumph. Hopwood had been working on a design for a 700 cc inline four-cylinder engine that could produce 50 bhp, but Turner's return to Triumph put an end to that plan.

Edward Turner was Managing Director once again by 1944.

The Speed Twin, Tiger 100 and 350 cc 3T models emerged in 1945. They now had telescopic forks, originally designed by Turner, but modified by Freddie Clarke after it was found that fork oil would spew out on bottoming.

Triumph T100 GP

Ernie Lyons won the first Manx Grand Prix on a Tiger 100 built by Freddie Clarke using an alloy wartime generator engine and the unreleased sprung hub in 1946. Turner, away in America, and anti-racing, was furious when he heard, but threw Lyons a victory dinner anyway, and a small batch of replica T100 were made for sale. Freddie Clarke resigned and joined AMC as Chief Development Engineer. Bert Hopwood had an argument with Turner over racing, left Triumph, and stayed away for 14 years.

The Mark I sprung rear hub was introduced in late 1947.

In 1948 Turner was persuaded to allow the entry of three 500 cc twins in the Senior TT, but none of them finished, so the experience only added to Turner's opposition to factory racing.

Triumph Thunderbird

The 6T 650 cc Thunderbird, as designed by Turner, and further developed by Jack Wickes, was launched on 20 September 1949, when three models covered 500 miles at 90 mph (800 km at 145 km/h) in a demonstration at Montlhery. Essentially an enlarged tourer version of the Speed Twin, the 6T was designed to satisfy the substantial American export market, and was advertised as capable of a genuine 100 mph (161 km/h). The Thunderbird became a favourite of police forces worldwide.

For 1950 Edward Turner went for a "low-chrome" policy, and banned the use of chrome fuel tanks. A chrome tank did not reappear till the 1981 Bonneville Royal Wedding edition.

Once in production, the first performance improvements came mid-way through the first year when the carburettor size was increased. This was the year Turner expressed the belief that 650 cc was the practical limit for the traditional British 360° vertical twin. It was the last year for the T100 GP model, although the T100C carried on, and the Mark 2 sprung hub was released.

Turner became involved in the establishment of the US-based Triumph Corp. in Maryland, a distribution company created to serve East Coast US markets. After 1950, America became Triumph's biggest customer.

In 1951 Sangster sold Triumph to BSA for £2.5 million, having previously sold Ariel to BSA in 1939. As part of the sale agreement, he joined the BSA Group as a member of the board. Edward Turner's holdings in Triumph gave him 10% of the sale.

A race kit for the Tiger 100 was introduced, bikes were restyled with new paint and the first dual seat appeared.

Triumph Terrier and Tiger Cub unit construction singles

The first lightweight for Triumph since 1933, a 150 cc OHV Terrier T15, four-speed unit construction single with a sloping engine, was introduced in 1953. As a result Triumph directors Edward Turner, Bob Fearon and Alex Masters rode from Land's End to John O'Groat's for a 1,000-mile Terrier demonstration and publicity stunt – the "Gaffers' Gallop."

By 1954 the sportier 200 cc version was available, and called the Tiger Cub.

The Tiger 100 race kit was dropped, and the T100C came with the kit already installed. The T100C had twin-carburettors for this year only.

Triumph T110 Tiger

The production 650 cc Thunderbird was a low-compression tourer, and the 500 cc Tiger 100 was the performance bike. That changed in 1954, along with the change to swing arm frames and the release of the alloy head 650 cc Tiger 110, eclipsing the 500 cc Tiger 100 as the performance model.

In 1956, after a boardroom struggle over power and control, Jack Sangster became Chairman of BSA Group, succeeding Sir Bernard Docker as chair. He appointed Turner Chief Executive of the Automotive Division (comprising BSA, Ariel, Triumph, Daimler and Carbodies – makers of London taxicabs).

3TA unit construction twin

the first unit construction twin-cylinder motorcycle made by Triumph, the 350 cc (21 ci) 'Twenty One' 3TA , designed by Turner and Wickes, was introduced for the 21st Anniversary of Triumph Engineering Co. Ltd in 1957. Unfortunately it also had the first "bathtub" rear enclosure, which proved to be a major styling mistake, with dealers reputedly having to remove enclosures to sell bikes.

Triumph T120 Bonneville

In 1958 a twin-carburettor version of the 650 engine emerged. Triumph test rider Percy Tait hit 128 mph on a prototype Bonneville at the Motorcycle Industry Research Association (MIRA) test track. The "Bonnie" was a show stopper at the 1958 Earl's Court Motorcycle Show.

Edward Turner, wary of racing and high-performance options, thought the Bonnie was a bad design and reputedly said to Frank Baker, Triumph's experimental department manager, "This, my boy, will lead us straight into the bankruptcy courts."

Daimler V8 engines

For 1959 Turner designed the hemi-head Daimler 2.5 & 4.5 litre V-8 engines used in the Daimler SP250 sports car and Daimler Majestic Major respectively. The head design is remarkably similar to the Triumph.

In 1960 Edward Turner went for a tour of the Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha plants in Japan and was shaken by the scale of production.

By 1961 Turner was under pressure to retire. Bert Hopwood resigned from AMC, and accepted Turner's offer to work for Triumph as Director and General Manager. It was at this time that Hopwood conceived the idea of a three-cylinder bike and engineer Doug Hele completed the drawings. Daimler was sold to Jaguar, and Edward Turner's V-8 was put into a Jaguar Mark 2 body with an upgraded interior and trademark Daimler grille, and called the Daimler 2½ litre V8.

In 1962, the last year of the "pre-unit" models, Triumph used a frame with twin front downtubes, but returned to a traditional Triumph single front downtube for the unit construction models that followed.

Edward Turner retired as Chief Executive of the Automotive Division (which included motorcycles), but retained his BSA Directorship. He was apparently by this time unhappy about the direction the company was taking. Bert Hopwood had hopes of being appointed Turner's successor, but the job went to BSA's Harry Sturgeon. BSA management now took over Triumph policy completely. Sturgeon decided to streamline motorcycle operations after McKinsey, an international business consultant, recommended treating the two companies as one.

1966 saw Edward Turner worked on a large-displacement, four-cylinder engine design which was not built.

In 1967, Edward Turner, at 66, retired from the BSA Board and Harry Sturgeon took his place. Unlike Turner, Sturgeon was convinced Triumph had to be involved in racing, and John Hartle won the 1967 Isle of Man TT production event on a Bonneville, just before Harry Sturgeon suddenly died, and was replaced by Lionel Jofeh.

Triumph Bandit and BSA Fury

In November 1970 the ailing company's last major press and trade launch was held. In the lineup was an ohc 350 cc twin with dual carburettors and five-speed transmission, designed by Edward Turner (already retired) as his last project, and further refined by Bert Hopwood and Doug Hele. It was to be sold as the Triumph Bandit (and BSA Fury with cosmetic changes), with 34 bhp capable of 110 mph, and it was already included in Triumph's brochures, when financial problems forced the model to be cancelled before it could be produced. Several pre-production prototypes were made and still exist.

In 2008, the address where Edward Turner lived in South London was awarded a Blue Plaque by Southwark London Borough Council.